Friday, March 26, 2010

A masterpiece

Three former Labour cabinet ministers are caught touting for lobbying jobs, Samantha Cameron is expecting a baby – and still the polls get worse for the Tories. Why? Because the electorate doesn't give a damn, that's why. Cameron gave a good reply to the Budget, whine the baffled ones, but it doesn't seem to have helped. Of course it hasn't helped because only a few pathetic anoraks know or care about it.

Do they think the public watches the Parliament Channel? What Joe Public sees is a 30-second clip on the evening news. He sees the interior of the Commons chamber – and that is, literally, a turn-off. He sees two men he detests as the leaders of rival gangs of corruption-mongers shouting at each other – and he is suffused with loathing.

When are they going to get it? No normal person in Britain has the slightest identification with what happens in Parliament. Journalists lunch and dine with MPs and ministers; they are on Christian name terms; they rely on them for "stories"; they take on, like chameleons, their interests, their views, their priorities, which are utterly alien to the rest of the nation.

The demented notion that news that a party leader's wife is expecting a baby is supposed to have the loyal tenants dancing in the streets, suddenly oblivious to the threats to their jobs and houses, raises a pertinent question: are these commentators completely sane?

Savour every word ... treasure them. There will not be a better piece written on the state of contemporary politics. "Most Tories hate David Cameron and cannot wait to see him crash and burn," says Warner. Too right. Vote for change, I say ... vote ABC: Anyone But Cameron.